BCBS Black Friday - Chicago Suburbs

I see 1,000 extra people from out-of-town heading to LP early next year, you know, because of the guaranteed allotment. I wouldn't gamble on heading someplace out-of-town for a BCBS release, but for a gurantee... :-)

 

Was pricing fixed for stores (GI made all stores have prices as XX.XX) or was it a free for all on a store basis? (What did you see it finally go for?)

 

The MSRP was a "suggestion" with many stores going well above and beyond this based on the new size of the bottles this year. I've seen bottles of regular as high as $14.99, seems like there are some stores out there even higher than that. The new bottle size make folks think that it's "not that bad" at $14.99, even though the (old format) 4-pack price at that price per oz would have come to a little less than $43, which would cause many folks to otherwise balk at the purchase.

 

I don't think GI can force stores to have fixed pricing. But it wasn't the same everywhere. I saw Rare for as high as $140 a bottle, Binny's had it for $65, heard some stores in Indiana had it for $75.

Costco had regular for $8.99 IIRC. I also saw it for $9.49, and $9.99, with some stores charging $12.99. Even saw one store with it priced at $29.99

Coffee & BW were around $13, or higher.

Prop & Regal around $24, but I think Coscto had them for $19.99

Seems most mom and pop stores had Binny's pricing or higher, while Coscto had the best prices.

 

World of beer in Naperville was 13.99 for regular. Just bought some at a hyvee for $9.99, save 10% when you buy 6.

 

varients at costco were 17.99

 

Did anyone noticed that BCBS was being over charged at Naperville Binnys? Sneaky sons of bitches charged 12.99 when all the other stores were at 9.99

 

At least 5 cases of regular left in lake Geneva at Brunos.

 

Paid $14.99 a bottle at a place I knew would have bottles on Friday...I felt obligated to pay that just based on the fact that I wasted my time driving out there.

I don't think I'll be seeking BC out next year based on the prices I've paid both this year and last at reputable spots. The gouging on this stuff is unreal.

 

No they didnt. Your just rang up wrong. Take them the receipt and they will fix it. I was first in line there. Reg was 9.99

 

Yeah, it's almost as if some of these places understand that most early purchases are often being made for the sole purpose of turning the beers around and moving them on a thriving secondary market so why not get their piece too? I'm with you, @rynegne this year really has highlighted just how frustrating a self-fulfilling secondary market can be. I want to buy a reasonable amount of beer to drink, but must battle the insanity of product that flies off shelves to a relatively small subset of folks who are buying it only to flip. Thank you so much for taking it upon yourselves to be the new distribution arm for Costco!

The craziest part is that many retail locations not only mark up prices because of this self-inflicted demand to flip product, but still see fit to often intentionally keep back portions of stock themselves to sell at even higher rates the next year at "vintage" pricing. Is this weird to anyone else? The demand is real and current. Why not meet the demand at the time? I'm not real bent out of shape about it, but it's so odd to me that a retailer wouldn't move all the product possible while they can each year. I actually can't think of any other retail environment in which this happens. Anybody?

Venting over. Sorry to drag you in to that as the spark @rynegne !

 

Just curious, which Costcos ended up getting regular and the variants? OB Costco isn't far from me, but I did not end up going. Thanks!

 

Assuming OB = Oakbrook? - they got prop.

Only 12 of their stores got 1 case of 1 variant

BW: Bloomingdale and Lake Zurich (Schaumburg put a case out later in the day)
Coffee: Niles and Mettawa
Regal: Mount Prospect and Orland Park and St Charles
Prop: Naperville and Oakbrook and Lake in the Hills and Bolingbrook

 

Yes, Oakbrook. Thanks for info!

 

Oak Brook got 1 case of Regal, not Prop

 

And glenview got 1 case of BW, i know for sure.

 

Lively Liquors in Elk Grove Village has regular left at $15.99 per + tax

 

How much regular did each Costco receive, roughly?

 

Id say 10-15 probably (just basing that number off the one store I was at and what was left when I got there roughly at 930)

 

Oak Brook got 20 cases gone in under 13 minutes. Word spread pretty quickly in the Oak Brook Binnys line. Everyone rushed over.

there were only 600 vintage bottles. And a chunk were old 12 oz regular


And as far as next year at LP, no telling. Fewer people showed up at LP binnys, 850ish this year vs 950ish last year. However the ones that did show up did so earlier. 50 people at midnight last year, a few hundred this year.

Thinking this may be because Binnys said guaranteed allotments at all binnys. whereas last year it was kind of unknown. Some made you choose. Some tweeted out what they were doing, some were silent.

The real bitch though was that most suburban binnys did 12 rare. Whereas LP did 1000. So people could have waited several hours in the cold, wind and rain to get shut out on rare yet you could have walked up at LP and gotten it. Thinking this will draw more people to LP next year. So don't count on going through 5x next year.